Differentially Expressed Genes in the Peripheral Blood of Patients in Cervical Cancer

We prospectively investigated gene expression profiles of cervical cancer patients undergoing concurrent chemoradiation. Upregulated genes in the circumstance of anemia were analyzed. Peripheral blood of 20 patients (bulky stage IB –IVA cervical squamous cell carcinomas) undergoing concurrent chemoradiation at four time-points was collected. Total RNA extracted by PaxGene Blood RNA System was analyzed with microarrays and MetaCoreTM functional network analyses. Fifty-three genes were significantly differentially expressed during concurrent chemoradiation. Fetal and embryonic hemoglobin genes were upregulated when patients had been severely myelosuppressed. Twenty-eight genes significantly correlated with the hemoglobin genes are involved in responses to hypoxia and oxygenation, TGF-β signaling, cell cycle suppression, G-protein signaling, and transcriptional regulation. C-Myc has the highest rank in transcriptional co-regulation. Besides, IGKV1D-13 was significantly downregulated in patients with severe hematologic toxicity. These approaches identified biological processes in peripheral blood modulated by concurrent chemoradiation and subsequent anemia. Keywords: chemoradiation, microarray, network analysis peripheral blood of 54 patients with common reference, cDNA microarray, replication by dye-swapping